"Dear Steve, I saw a patient this morning with your book [in hand] and highlights throughout. She loves it and finds it very useful to help her in dealing with atrial fibrillation."

Dr. Wilber Su Cavanaugh Heart Center, Phoenix, AZ

"Your book [Beat Your A-Fib] is the quintessential most important guide not only for the individual experiencing atrial fibrillation and his family, but also for primary physicians, and cardiologists."

"Steve Ryan's summaries of the Boston A-Fib Symposium are terrific. Steve has the ability to synthesize and communicate accurately in clear and simple terms the essence of complex subjects. This is an exceptional skill and a great service to patients with atrial fibrillation."

Dr. Jeremy Ruskin of Mass. General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Approximately half also received ganglionic plexus ablation in which four major ganglionic plexus were ablated as well as the ligament of Marshall in the ganglionic plexus group. Patients were followed for one year.

Results: Ablating GPs—No Clinical Benefit, More Complications

Areas outside of the heart with clusters of nerve cells.

The researchers found no clinical benefits associated with ganglion plexus ablation added to a thoracoscopic ablation strategy, and significantly more complications.

There were significantly more recurrences in the ganglionated plexus group (78.1%) than in the control group (51.4%). And what is worse, more than double the number of major adverse events occurred in the ganglionic plexus group such as major bleeding and sinus node dysfunction which required pacemaker implantation.

He concluded that routine ganglionated plexus ablation offers “no clinical benefit” in this patient category, and “should not be performed.”

The 2016 AFACT trial may finally have determined that ablating GPs doesn’t work.

What Patients Need to Know

Surgery Not Recommended as First Choice Treatment for A-Fib: Current guidelines do not recommend surgery as a first choice or option for A-Fib. Surgery is generally more invasive, traumatic and risky than a simple catheter ablation procedure.

Most current surgical strategies have built in limitations. For example, if you have A-Flutter coming from the right atrium, current surgical techniques don’t access the right atrium or some other non-PV trigger sites. See Cox-Maze, Mini-Maze and Hybrid Surgeries. In such cases, one often needs a catheter ablation after the surgery.

Make Sure Your Surgeon Doesn’t Ablate Ganglionic Plexus Areas:If you have to have surgery for A-Fib, make sure your surgeon does not ablate the ganglionic plexus areas as part of his A-Fib surgery. Ablating the ganglionic plexus areas doesn’t improve ablation results and causes more major permanent complications. As Dr. de Groot unequivocally states, ganglionic plexus ablation “should not be performed.”

The Bottom Line if Having Mini-Maze Surgery

If you have to have surgery for A-Fib (versus a catheter ablation by an EP), make sure you ask the surgeon if they ablate the ganglionic plexus areas as part of your A-Fib surgery. (Don’t expect a surgeon to volunteer this info. You have to ask!)

If they say yes, hand them a copy of this post. Then find another surgeon.

Disclaimer: the authors of this Web site are not medical doctors and are not affiliated with any medical school or organization. The information on this site is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health professional prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Nothing contained in this service is intended to be for medical diagnosis or treatment.